Exhibition · 2016

Milestones ’56

Hungarian House, New York

In my own words

What do people carry with them when they leave their country — in their pockets and in their memory?

In New York I met people who carried 1956 in their pockets. Literally: photographs, a key, a christening spoon — the one object they grabbed on the way… We spent months driving around New York State, Connecticut, New Jersey, tracking down the ones still alive.

So I photographed them twice: once the face, once the object. Together they make one picture. The light is classical, almost Rembrandt, because these people deserved the dignity of painting. Nobody looks down in these portraits. There are no victim poses. Sixty years on, they were still standing — and that is the whole exhibition in one sentence.

Historical record

Who made the exhibition, and when

Milestones ’56 was on view at the Hungarian House of New York from 22 October 2016 to 10 January 2017. The fifteen portrait and life-story records name the Hungarian House, photographer Norbert Bánhalmi, social researcher and House director Ildikó Nagy, and journalist Gergely Szilvay as the exhibition’s compilers.

The records identify the American Hungarian Memorial Committee and the Consulate General of Hungary in New York as partner organisations, the Hungary Initiatives Foundation as supporter, and Mandiner as media partner. These are historical project roles, not claims of present-day partnership or endorsement.

Gallery

Works from the exhibition

An elderly man in a green Rubik's Cube T-shirt stands beside a vintage road bicycle carrying a bag marked "United States Escapee Program."
A woman in a red patterned silk shawl stands in a room filled with antiques, a marble bust, and an oil painting.
An elderly man in a tweed blazer holds a book titled "Budapest Exit" with a hand-drawn cover.
An elderly couple poses together indoors beside a small granite memorial plaque resting on a side table.
A seated elderly man in a dark suit wears a cross-shaped medal on his lapel, with a Hungarian flag in the background.
An elderly man in a dark shirt with a gold necklace holds up a framed sketch depicting flags and a soldier figure.
A woman in an orange and black floral top holds a spiral-bound memoir titled "Climbing Out From Under The Shadow."
An elderly man in a navy pinstripe suit and striped tie stands beside an old oil portrait of a mustached man.
A woman in a cream suit holds up a wooden plaque with a painted coat of arms labeled "báró Apor család."
An elderly man in a black sweater sits beside a bronze 1956 memorial sculpture, with an American flag and framed family photos behind him.
An elderly man in a red polo shirt holds a wooden plaque with a Hungarian tricolor ribbon wrapped in barbed wire.
An elderly man in a striped shirt stands before a large engraved stone memorial bearing the year 1956 and a coat of arms.
An elderly man with a grey beard, wearing a navy vest, holds an old engraved metal cup.
An elderly man in a white polo shirt with a Hungarian crest holds a book titled "35 NAP" beside a small clay sculpture of a huddled figure.
An elderly couple embraces on an outdoor terrace beside red flowers, with a lake and trees in the background.

© Norbert Bánhalmi / BANHALMI. All rights reserved. Images from the BANHALMI archive, 1999–2026.

Press & media

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The work within the oeuvre

Why it belongs here

How it connects to the wider work

Milestones ’56 combines fifteen portraits and life stories connected to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and emigration. The exhibition ran at the Hungarian House of New York from 22 October 2016 to 10 January 2017.

Period of the oeuvre

II2014–2016Human stories and historical memory

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Related projects and archive records

Presence-research period · II

Human stories and historical memory

This exhibition belongs here because of the question behind it, the photographs it brought together and the traces it left in public.

Archive overviewHuman stories and historical memory Press and moving imageMilestones ’56 Curatorial dossierResearch context

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Public sources and project documentation

Documented public record

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